When I was about 20 years old, the doctor couldn’t weigh me and I had to go and get weighed on a commercial scale in the back of a fish market. At that time, I was around 540 pounds and now I have way more loose skin than I ever would have expected.
It’s one thing to be obese and it’s another thing when you reach morbid obesity. I mean, I remember figuring out my BMI and my heaviest recorded was like right around 70. So there’s no category for that.
It’s beyond the category of morbid obesity.
My name is John Allaire.
I am 29 years old and at my heaviest I weighed 540 pounds
and at 27 years of age I was sitting on 237 pounds and i could not be any happier but that was before my skin removal surgery.
My whole family really struggled with weight management.
We were all obese. I was about 380 pounds or so when my dad got sick. I was 18 when he passed away from cancer. Between the time he got sick and a few months after he died, I had shot up to over 500 lbs.
I remember just looking at myself in the mirror and I remember just seeing how big I had gotten. I was over 540 lbs at that time, I assume.
I was just thinking that I didn’t even look human anymore. Maybe it would be better if I was just dead instead of trying to have this back and forth fight for the rest of my life. Because I’m never going to lose the weight and I’m always going to be this huge and it’s just going to lead to an early death and a painful funeral for my family anyway.
I was so tired and sick of the way I was living with all that weight. I thought if I could join a gym that it would have helped. I would go for a couple weeks, pay for the gym for six months, but never use it again. It was just years of trying and failing before something clicked in me.
The day that I really, truly committed on a deep level to losing
The weight and making changes was the day that I got engaged to Kayla. I had known Kayla since we were twelve. I’ve been in love with her since I was 15. We dated all through high school. Even though she loved me as I was and she was ready to commit to marrying me at 540 lbs, which is mind blowing, really. I was like, there is no way that I can, in good conscience, drag this woman through the difficulties that I’m going to have for the rest of my life if I don’t lose this weight.
I think a lot of people were surprised how close we were, especially when we started, because there was an obvious difference in weight. So a lot of people asked, how did you get her?
One day I was scrolling on Facebook and I saw an advertisement for these supplements. I thought let me give it a go and actually stick to using them. I saw such a big difference in such a small period of time, it has completely transformed me. So then it was just like, okay, well, I’ll see what else I can lose, in the six weeks, and I ended up losing just over 30lbs. Also I went to my local gym here and there. It finally gave me the courage to lose the weight.
I finally had that willpower for sure. Working out was a major thing,
but I also made sure I took control of my diet better than I have ever done and those supplements I took have completely changed my life.
Before I ever actually started losing weight, we always knew that there was a good chance that I would have loose skin, and my wife and I had talked about that before we even got married, like okay, but would you still love me if I had a ton of loose skin? It ended up being a lot more than I expected. I think my loose skin affected me in a lot of different ways. Definitely self image. I knew the surgery was just going to improve my overall quality of life.I was thinking I am finally going to feel completely free. Like, there’s not going to be any baggage from my obesity.
Going into the surgery was a blur, I was simultaneously very excited and very nervous about the surgery.
I was told all different estimates as far as the amount of excess skin that I had. It was roughly around 16 pounds of skin
that it was going to amount to, like 8ft of skin, I just remember that I had to stand like a statue for, like, 20 minutes with my arms out while they marked all over my body and drew all the lines they were going to cut
As far as, like, self confidence and looking like a man
and moving like a person should, that was all taken care of.
I still have a lot of swelling. They say that 90% of that should be gone
by about six months, and that last 10% might take up to a year to go away. It’s kind of like the last piece of feeling like I really transformed my body. All I can really say is that the specific cards that were dealt to me that are conducive to losing weight were taking care of my diet and the supplements that I have been taking. Also 100% I can say, if I can do it, anybody can do it. I hope I can inspire and help as many people as I can. I cannot just leave without sharing with you the supplements that helped me.